Small room ideas

Small room ideas

Small room ideas from the world's best interior designers. Small space design can be the bane of any flat-dweller's or home owner's life. But they can also be a blessing in design disguise. Awkward, small room ideas are often a catalyst for change, forcing you to a) clear the clutter and b) come up with clever small room ideas you may never have thought of otherwise. From small living rooms ideas and small dining rooms, to small bedrooms, small bathrooms, small kitchens and kids' rooms, or even just small space storage solutions, we've delved in to the House & Garden achive to bring you clever, stylish ideas for every room of the house.

This owners of this London house gave architect Maria Speake of Retrouvius the go-ahead to make structural changes to give their family and business the space needed without having to move home. A shed has been made into a little studio in the vegetable garden, with a daybed that's fitted with storage underneath. The shed sits in a vegetable patch, beyond which is a communal garden that has been a labour of love for Henrietta who is one half of the gardening duo the Land Gardeners who run a thriving flower garden based at Wardington Manor in Oxfordshire.

This iconic wallpaper is Scalamandré's 'Zebra' in masai red, famously used in Wes Anderson's filmThe Royal Tenenbaums. It creates an intimate feeling in this small bathroom, which was boldly designed by Beata Heuman. The decorator has perfectly demonstrated how to choose one bold colour for a tiny space. Mirrors also help - they encourage light to bounce around, making the small space seem larger.

The interior of this fun, colourful home is a highly original space, unapologetically theatrical and oozing energy. 'The owners are both artists. They have quite wild tastes and they love strong colours,' says designer Beata. 'I was told by the wife that her childhood dream was to have a house with a series of rooms each with its own distinct personality - Chinese, Japanese, American and so on. That would have been too much, but I did want to give the house variation and changes of mood.'

Known for their restoration of historic buildings in Scotland, conservation architects Nick Groves-Raines and Kristin Hannesdottir relished the challenge of saving Lamb's House in Leith, where they now live and work. In an attic room, the box bed is painted in Farrow & Ball's 'India Yellow'.

Using different patterns in a small space works best if you stick to one colour scheme. In this living room, cream has been used. The curtains are made up in a discontinued fabric that interior designer Beata Heuman was able to buy cheaply as it was water-marked. She recommends looking for inexpensive off-cuts, available direct from individual fabric manufacturers.

Beata believes that 'people are sometimes afraid of custom-made things, but you just need to know where to go'. The antique bronze table cost £30 from Portobello market.

Beata Heuman has transformed her small first-time buyer's flat in a style she jokingly refers to as 'urban safari chic', making imaginative use of both the compact space and her limited funds.

This small living room corner has been used to display books, ornaments and artwork with shelving that surrounds a comfy red and white sofa. The shelves are painted grey to match the walls and papered at the back with a geometric pattern to reflect the sofa fabric.

In this small bedroom, a wrap-around headboard takes on the appearence of luxurious wall panelling and makes the small space look bigger. Naomi Paul was commissioned by Studio Ashby to make the beautiful hand-woven, offset wall and table lights.

This modern city flat that has been transformed from a stark new-build to a characterful home. The use of a natural palette full of texture and earthy tones continues in this bedroom, creating a calm and peaceful space.

The greenliving room of Luke Edward Hall's London flat is painted in Leyland's bold 'Forest Storm', which makes the space cosy. Although there was initial concern about how dark it was, the final result is beautiful. The room fortunately benefits from two large sash windows, so it remains bright and light. Luke and Duncan's decision to steer clear of beiges is typical of their decorating approach. 'People spend so long thinking about paint colours, but you can very easily change them,' says Luke.

The 1960s tan leather Walter Antonis chair is a recent acquisition from Goldwood by Borris, a dealer in Belgium, and it is decorated with a vintage kelim cushion. A collage of framed prints and pictures surrounds the chair, including an oil pastel sketch and a print by Luke, a large Rene Magritte poster from the Penny Guggenheim Collection in Venice and a Pablo Bronstein print. 'We buy lots of old exhibition posters from eBay - they're great value and lots of fun,' says Luke.

The vertical lines of the panelling in this Welsh farmhouse by Hackett Holland add height to the awkwardly shaped bathroom, while the window gives bathers a view of the sky. A sink curtain emphasises the country feel of the scheme and hides any unsightly pipes.

Patrick enclosed the bed, hiding the original chimney breast and cleverly making use of the voids either side for a bedside shelf and walk-in cupboard. The patchwork quilt on the bed was made by Patrick's grandmother, while the painting is by his mother.

Make the most of every surface, as in this Ikea design, by attaching rails, shelves and hooks to the side of a cupboard. Its stainless steel 'Rimforsa' rail, £6, holds everything from cooking utensils and chopping boards to tablets. The bamboo tablet stand costs £10.

In this London terraced house conversion, the kitchen includes a casual dining area with a corner sofa. This is a stylish way of using a small kitchen to its fullest potential.

The space features a whimsical yet modern bubble-like light fixture. Lizzie and Ion Florescu decided to combine two neighboring Chelsea town houses with ambitions of maximising outdoor space and keeping work areas separate from day-to-day life.

A huge sitting-room-cum-party-room now takes over the vast, former schoolroom of Saint Paulinus, a nineteenth-century church in North Yorkshire that is now the home of Sophie and Greville Worthington and their three children. Try Morso or Charnwood for something similar. The free-standing wood burning stove is the perfect alternative to a fitted fireplace for smaller spaces.

Low, gabled ceilings can make fitting furniture almost impossible. In this chalet designed by Todhunter Earle, custom-built shelves fit to the gables and storage boxes act as drawers (try Muji for similar), while a rail for clothes is concealed behind a simple curtain.

This project, designing a shepherd's hut, was not without its challenges. 'The biggest hurdle was the special planning due to the tight dimensions,' says Top 100 designer Katharine Pooley. She decided to take on the task 'with the same approach as any other project' and created a space that would suit playing children and adults seeking a relaxing retreat alike.

Hand-printed fabric walling and selected antiques add character to the hut, which has a different design scheme to the main house. 'Complete with a sweet kitchen, wood-burning stove, artisan-fitted furniture and a bespoke bed, it has the perfect feeling of cosiness.'

A muted colour scheme was chosen by Top 100 designer Katharine Pooley for her stylish shepherd's hut due to its limited space. Metallic accents were added with bronze- and copper-toned accessories. 'To finish the look, I used sisal carpet that was seamless and had a country feeling, complementing the choice of fabrics throughout the hut.'

This grey panelled utility room with a Sheila Maid is the perfect example of what to do with that strange little space in your home. The smart room clad in tongue-and-groove panelling belongs to a west London house designed by Clare Stevenson and Claire Sa from architectural practice De Rosee Sa.

Find a similar traditional Sheila Maid clothes dryer at Garden Trading. Raised and lowered from the ceiling with a jute rope, it is perfectly suited to small rooms with a lack of floor space.

Interior designer Beata Heuman has worked hard to achieve visual unity throughout her west-London flat by replacing mismatched flooring with engineered boards, and picking fabrics in large scale prints but soft toning shades. 'Less is more when it comes to colour,' she adds. Farrow & Ball's 'Pavillion Gray' on the walls gives a sophisticated evening mood. Above the doorframe she has used mirrors to reflect the light, and create an illusion of space and increased ceiling height.

Mirror is a vital tool in the armoury of anyone designing a small room. Use it to reflect light and create an illusion of space. Here mirrored Ikea 'Pax' wardrobes flanking the window emphasise the view on to leafy Brompton Cemetery in interior designer Beata Heuman's flat. The blinds are in 'Serafina' (white) by Marvic.

Taken from the September 2014 issue of House & Garden. Additional text: Emily Senior

'Make the city guest room a place where people can have an escape of sorts,' suggests designer Veere Grenney, the creator of this jewel of a room. 'The fabric-covered walls and tented ceiling feel luxurious and exotic; it is hard to remember you are in the middle of London. A shelf full of good books is an imperative; here it is built in to the wall at the foot of the bed as there was no room for a standing shelf. It is the easiest way to give a room life and character.'

Taken from the July 2014 issue of House & Garden. Additional text: Emily Senior.

Remember that storage doesn't necessarily have to be in the bedroom. If you have a corridor near the room consider utilising that as a place to put wardrobes, as designer Philippa Thorpe has in this Chelsea house.

Small bedroom with no space for an en-suite? There is something undeniably charming about the tiny little free-standing clawfoot bath designer Ilse Crawford has used in this room of Stockholm's Ett Hem hotel, where panelling and rugs add warmth.

A warm, welcoming interior with a carefully curated mix of vintage and custom-made furniture gives Ett Hem in Stockholm the feel of a well-loved house, rather than a hotel.

The owner deliberated long and hard over her choice of interior designer. It was during a dinner with her husband at Mathias Dahlgren's restaurant in Stockholm's Grand Hôtel that she saw the balance of international and Scandinavian design she wanted.

So began a relationship with the restaurant's British designer, Ilse Crawford of Studioilse, and an immediate friendship was struck. When asked what was the best value for money in the whole project, Jeanette responds without hesitation, 'Ilse Crawford'. For her part, Ilse describes her client as 'terrific and courageous. Prepared to go beyond her comfort zone.' And true comfort is the end result.

'I planned this room around some old silk ikat I found in Istanbul,' says designer Jane Churchill of the two-bedroomed terrace house in London to which she downsized. 'I designed two chairs for it - without armrests but with curved backs for comfort, as there is no space for armchairs.'

Taken from the October 2011 issue of House & Garden. Additional text: Teresa Levonian Cole.

Interior designer Jane Taylor has taken an awkwardly shaped little corner of the dining room in her London home, and hidden it behind a bookshelf, turning it in to a miniature study for her husband Simon containing a desk and shelves. Height has been utilzed with shelves all the way to the ceiling, accessed by a fold-away step ladder.

Wondering what colour scheme to use in a small bedroom? In this small Chelsea house, interior designer Philippa Thorp has ingeniously used every centimetre of space. The scheme revolves around calm neutral patterns and clean lines, highlighted by eye-catching abstract paintings (including this one by Lasse Skarbovik).

Taken from the May 2013 issue of House & Garden. Additional text: Teresa Levonian Cole.

This 90 square metre former artist's studio in Chelsea is transformed into a light-filled pied-à-terre for a family of five, through clever reconfiguration of the interior (with help from designer Eve Mercier). The small bathroom features a champagne bucket sink and red ikat wallpaper by Ornamenta.

Taken from the April 2012 issue of House & Garden. Additional text: Teresa Levonian Cole. Locations editor: Lavinia Bolton.

"Not an inch of space is unused," says designer Jonathan Tuckey of the mews house he redesigned in London's Notting Hill for a former submariner, someone used to confined spaces. Case in point? The modern living room is screened with Douglas-fir panelling, hiding a compact study behind it.

Taken from the November 2013 issue of House & Garden. Additional text: Hatta Byng.

By using Farrow & Ball's 'All White' paint and incorporating storage under the hallway stairs, this family home (measuring a snug 90 square metres and designed by Eve Mercier) doesn't sacrifice space or style.

Taken from the April 2012 issue of House & Garden. Additional text: Teresa Levonian Cole. Locations editor: Lavinia Bolton.

A mezzanine bedroom is the ideal solution for a small space, especially if you fit in a built-in wardrobe behind the bed. But designer Maurizio Pellizzoni had to jump through several hoops to get planning permission for the staircase, which links the mezzanine bedroom to the sitting room. First the staircase had to be craned in, then the council had to close the street while giant glass panels for the bedroom were hoisted up into place. Maurizio refers to this project, done for his friend Andrew Daniell in London's Shoreditch, as the James Bond flat, because of its technology and slick looks. It's a bachelor pad, but the striped blanket adds a soft splash of colour in an otherwise monochromatic scheme (find a similar one from Welsh weavers Melin Tregwynt, £95 at John Lewis).

Taken from the December 2013 issue of House & Garden. Additional text: Kasia Macie Jowska and Emily Tobin.

This small kids' bedroom features a loft bed, along with two broad, wall-mounted benches that are easily transformed into beds (bed-linen is concealed below), while a third, drawer bed (pictured) slides out when needed. Eve Mercier designed this former artist's studio Chelsea, London which measures only 90 square metres and is home to a family of five.

Taken from the April 2012 issue of House & Garden. Additional text: Teresa Levonian Cole. Locations editor: Lavinia Bolton.

Interior designer Hugh Leslie transformed his nineteenth-century Chelsea studio into an airy, harmonious space. In the bedroom, he introduced some handsome joinery in the room, not least a cupboard-cum-drawer unit (left) which provides ample storage above and below.

Taken from the August 2013 issue of House & Garden. Additional text: Leonie Highton.